500 Hawks, Canadian company host basketball clinic

THE 500 Hawks Basketball Academy of TT will be hosting an exchange basketball clinic this weekend, in collaboration with Catchadream Sports (CADS) of Mississauga, Canada. The two-day clinic, which will be held at the Central Indoor Sport Arena, Chaguanas, is free and open to young basketball players – boys and girls – under the age of 16.

Feature guests include coach Phil Dixon, director of CADS International Exchange Programme and Recruitment, and coach Feleshia Watson, founder and sports medical herbalist. To date, the CADS programme has been able to recruit several talented players, including 20 international athletes from Guadeloupe, five athletes from Jamaica, and a few from Martinique. It has been active in Guadeloupe for the last eight years and in Jamaica for the last 15 years. In the past, a few notable names have been a part of the CADS programme, including current NBA players Andrew Wiggins (Minnesota Timberwolves) and Nik Stauskas (Portland Trailblazers).

These basketball clinics continue to bring basketball expertise to different islands across the Caribbean. Head coach of the 500 Hawks Academy Karim Bilal said, "We have been working with coach Dixon and the CADS programme for quite some time and our academy looks forward to hosting them locally, as they aim to positively contribute to TTo basketball. I see it as a great opportunity for our youth to be a part of something exciting and hopefully it acts as some sort of motivation for our kids in basketball."

CADS is a sports-based organization that offers athletes aged nine-24 years access to professional sports training services, including sports psychology, personal training, mental health coaching, and sports medical herbalism. In September 2017, the programme launched its flagship basketball skills and development initiative with the Mississauga Wolverines Basketball Association league to focus on Canadian athletes aged six-17, teaching basketball fundamentals, shooting drills, passing, and body mechanic techniques